Texas version
Rattle snakes are smaller than you think and louder.
Frogs are smaller than you think.
But are also larger than you think.
Horny Toads are smaller than you think.
Grass hoppers are larger than you think.
Crickets are smaller than you think.
Locust are larger than you think.
(And creepy as fuck.)
I've seriously seen grasshoppers the size of praying manti. It's fucked up....
and as it's spring, nearly every time I go out for a cigarette during daytime, mockingbirds are fucking each other up. It's like watching a free cock-fight on the hour, every hour... of day light.
Never seen a rattle snake, but I've found shed skins. Frogs/Toads, yep... and they are a pain getting out of my pool, as I rinse them off so the chlorine doesn't kill them. Crickets/flies/skeeters I now have an army of Anoles outside to combat. Seriously, in 10 years they'll be here naturally, hardly invasive... plus they're chill AF. Locusts might create the most annoying sound ever. It's like a lawnmower next to your window at fucking 3AM. Fuck them.
And mockingbirds will just randomly fuck with other animals, divebombing squirrels, cats, dogs, even people. I didn't realize they weren't so aggressive and assholish outside of Texas, I guess they somehow figured out they are protected in TX.
Honestly, in my area it's the fucking robins that go 9000. There is some sort of crazy bird turf war going on and the robins are pwning everything. I have yet to see a cardinal this spring.
Mocking birds are very territorial birds. My understanding is a lot of bird watchers have trouble with them harassing and hogging feeders when they put them out
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@funkmasterrex where I'm at the Robins don't get to be territorial. They might be able to take on all the sparrows and things, but they're entirely too tiny to deal with the magpies, crows, and falcons. The crows and falcons battle it out every year, though they usually end up sharing. Especially once the falcon chicks grow up. The crows are fine when there's a murder and they can gangbang a single falcon, but we once had a family of 5 falcons and the crows didn't stand much of a chance when they worked together
Oh yeah, the crows/hawks/falcons/ravens are on an entirely other level, but there isn't much of a fight as everything else just moves. This pair of robins though, each is about the size of a small rabbit, about 3x the size of the mockingbirds.... fucking abnormally gigantic robins lol
I lived in Tomball for a while and we would get friggin EAGLES that would land in the middle of the road when I was walking. They are WAY bigger than you would expect
I swear, one landed about 10 yards in front of me in the road. Admittedly it was a small, 2 lane road, but it spread out it wings and those damn things reached from one side of the road to the other.
I had a Raven try to feed me a seed once when I was traveling westward. I was in Wenatchee, WA when it happened. The seed fell into a crack in my car door, and the raven immediately turned its head sideways to see where it went. Suffice to say, it must’ve had another prerogative, since it flew away after not retrieving the seed. Those fuckers are big.
The otters thing. 100% percent true. You may get to see them in a zoo or say at Busch Gardens but if you ever get to see them in the wild it seems they're at least twice as big. The wild cats thing I think depends on the breed. Bobcat? Smaller. Florida Panther? Bigger, not exactly lion size but it'd come up to your waist and is not something you want to think its trapped and needs to go through you to get out.
Rattle snakes are smaller than you think and louder.
Frogs are smaller than you think.
But are also larger than you think.
Horny Toads are smaller than you think.
Grass hoppers are larger than you think.
Crickets are smaller than you think.
Locust are larger than you think.
(And creepy as fuck.)
and as it's spring, nearly every time I go out for a cigarette during daytime, mockingbirds are fucking each other up. It's like watching a free cock-fight on the hour, every hour... of day light.
'
@funkmasterrex where I'm at the Robins don't get to be territorial. They might be able to take on all the sparrows and things, but they're entirely too tiny to deal with the magpies, crows, and falcons. The crows and falcons battle it out every year, though they usually end up sharing. Especially once the falcon chicks grow up. The crows are fine when there's a murder and they can gangbang a single falcon, but we once had a family of 5 falcons and the crows didn't stand much of a chance when they worked together